One Very Fine Week in Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

This is one of the paintings that will be in my upcoming art show. It’s not the best painting, in my opinion, nor is it the largest painting - by any means - yet it’s my favorite. And here’s why:

It was painted from a photograph one of my kids took of me on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua. Our youngest son D and his wife, A lived in Nicaragua. Son G and his wife M along with daughter D and I went down to visit. They hired a little plane to take us from the Pacific side of the country to the Caribbean side where we landed on Big Corn Island. From there we got on a Panga, it’s the biggest open boat I’ve ever seen, which seated about 40 people, and it carried us some 15 miles across to Little Corn Island.  Once we landed there we had to walk along the island’s edge on the west to the east side of the island where there were little cabins. There are no cars and no golf carts. The only way to get around on this island is to walk!! Its population is 7,400 English-speaking residents, and the place we stayed had a chef from the Culinary Institute of America. Every meal, including breakfast, was a gourmets treat. There were hammocks on the beach and hammocks on the porches of the little cabins. So very relaxing and a wonderful treat each day. I think of it as the best vacation I have ever had in my life. Loved it. Love the photo and especially love the painting! Come see it?

Barn Painting and Sailboat Racing

My last blog post was about what sailboat racers do when the wind stops. As I thought about it and some of the paintings in this show I could almost apply these same thoughts to creating paintings. I especially had a hard time with one of the paintings which I’ll share with you. 

This is a photo my nephew sent me of our family’s barn and granary. I know this scene well. It was taken from our house where I grow up. I drew the scene on the canvas and did a quick lay-in. I was very happy with it. On the next pass, I painted the granary and the foreground along with the road. I left the studio that day very happy with the direction this was going. The next day, I did the trees and a quick painting of the barn. Oops… the barn didn’t look right. I talked to some painter friends and they pointed out to me that my perspective on the barn of off. I tried to correct it and asked for help again. Still something was wrong. I painted it again using their advice and sent a photo to my brother. His answer back to me was “Your barn isn’t right!”

Back to the metaphor of sailing when the wind stops… awareness, preparation, possibilities, calling for help and so on. Yes, I was “sitting in the middle of Puget Sound” as it were… I had to go through the same process as those sailors have to do when the wind stopped them. I also know that in painting, sometimes you just have to let it “rest”… or maybe, it was me who needed the rest! A couple of weeks later, I mixed up some colors, painted the barn, stepped back, and called it done. Am I happy with the painting? Well, I liked the barn better as it was in the lay-in. Which is what you see in this image here. That was the best barn, in my opinion. Pretty darn good barn!! Very painterly and loose. But sometimes you just have to let it be as it is.

You will see this painting in the show and you can give me your opinion. Of course, the lay-in barn has been painted over several times. But perhaps you’ll remember this image when you come to my show. You’ll be there… right?